Motorists beware: Big concrete pour on Wacker Drive

The completed $300 million reconstruction of Wacker between Randolph Street and Congress serves about 60,000 vehicles, half on Upper Wacker and half on Lower Wacker. The average daily traffic count on Congress is 75,700 vehicles. The improvements also feature wider sidewalks and crosswalks, used by 150,000 pedestrians on an average weekday, CDOT said. "Re-creating a double-deck highway boulevard through the downtown was no small task,'' Chicago Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein said. "Now it's a modern, much more safe and efficient roadway whether you are in a car, using transit, biking or walking.''

A caravan of about 125 concrete-mixing trucks this morning began--slightly ahead of schedule-- pouring the first of seven intersections being rebuilt in the Wacker Drive reconstruction project.

The pour had been scheduled to start about 8 a.m. at Wacker and Randolph Street, but concrete was already flowing at 5:45 a.m., apparently in anticipation of expected rain. The job was expected to take about eight hours, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.

Motorists are being advised to avoid Wacker and Lake Street, CDOT officials said.

More than 1,100 cubic yards of concrete will be poured to a depth of 13 inches, equivalent to about 18 city blocks of sidewalk, or about 2.25 miles, officials said.

Crews have removed Upper and Lower Wacker from Randolph to about 200 feet south of Washington Street, installed new columns and placed forms to support the pouring of concrete for Upper Wacker, officials said. Lower Wacker has remained open to local traffic to allow access to loading docks and parking garages.

Wacker is being rebuilt from just south of Washington to Monroe Street this year, and from Monroe to Van Buren in 2012. Work is also taking place to reconfigure the interchange at Wacker and Congress Parkway.